Waymo’s Custom Chip Takes Center Stage in Robotaxi Push

Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving system, which debuted in its next-generation Ojai robotaxi, is presented as central to the company’s robotaxi ambitions. The company said it built a custom 5 nm ASIC chip to handle raw data before it reaches the main self-driving system. Waymo says the chip delivers more than 1,000 TOPS of computing performance and supports fast, safe reactions in complex city environments.

The takeaway: Waymo is not just expanding service areas; it is pushing deeper into vertical integration to improve cost, performance, and reliability. TechCrunch notes that the Ojai robotaxi is now open to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.

Waymo has said its next-generation vehicle is cheaper to build, operate, and maintain — all important pieces if the company hopes to turn a profit someday. The Ojai vehicle includes 13 high-fidelity cameras, which helps explain the need for specialized computing to manage a large volume of sensor data.

Waymo is also working with partners across the compute stack, including AMD, Micron, Nvidia, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext, and TSMC. The broader implication is clear: robotaxi scale depends on both autonomy software and the hardware built to process dense, real-world driving inputs.

TechCrunch also highlights an Idaho National Laboratory review into whether Chinese lidar sensors could pose a security risk if widely used on vehicles in the United States. The report says the research is being funded by a company or group of companies in the electric and autonomous vehicle industries.

Several companies contacted by TechCrunch, including Rivian, General Motors, Ford, Kodiak, Lucid Motors, Nuro, and Uber, said they were unaware of the review. Aurora, Nvidia, and Zoox did not respond to questions, according to the article.

The newsletter rounds up several transportation deals, led by Also, a startup incubated within Rivian, raising another $150 million in a Series D round led by Prysm Capital. TechCrunch reports Also has raised $455 million since spinning out of Rivian in March 2025 and has evolved from micromobility toward driven and autonomous small electric vehicles.

Serve Robotics also expanded beyond Uber, partnering with Grubhub for sidewalk robot delivery in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Alexandria, Virginia, while expanding its DoorDash partnership to San Jose, California, and Washington, D.C. Other notable deals include Einride’s agreement to add 500 Tesla Semis, Grounded’s $5 million seed round, Uber’s partnership with Zipline, and Vessev’s $19 million Series A.

The article flags Amazon’s plan for Prime Air to reach nearly 500 U.S. cities by the end of 2026, along with autonomous excavators from Bedrock Robotics operating at customer sites in Nevada and Texas. It also notes Genesis’ GV90 electric SUV, Tesla-related recalls in China, and permits for Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to operate commercial robotaxi services in Clark County, Nevada.

Regulation remains a major theme. Uber was fined €825 million by the Dutch Data Protection Authority over automated driver account suspensions, while Waymo responded to NHTSA questions tied to a low-speed crash involving a child, with released responses redacted.